Encrypted (9 page)

Amanda paused long enough
so
that everyone turned to look at her
.
The director followed their gaze
.
“Cat got your tongue?”

She liked it better when he was bouncing around the room
.
Why did he need to talk to her
?
Take
MacVetti
—
he
could easily answer any questions
.
But Henderson fixed her with his gaze and frowned
.
Her time was up
.
She cleared her throat, buying her another half a second from doom
.

“Dr. Amanda
Rolph
.”

“Any new cases reported in Europe in the last four hours?”
Henderson asked.

“No, sir.” You know
,
this might not go too badly if she could keep her answers to
two
words
.
But then
,
Jennifer nudged her
.
Damn it, if her assistant
wanted to say something, she had a tongue
.
She nudged again, but Amanda kept her gaze forward
.

Luckily
,
Henderson didn’t seem to notice her assistant’s prompting
,
since he moved on
.
“And still no cases in the States?”

Everyo
ne in the room shook their head
s
.

“So this could be a natural anomaly after all,” the director said with a significant amount of relief.

Again, the
audience
seemed to answer as a single being
,
with a warm murmur of agreement.

Devlin
nodded the most vigorously
.
“We might have dodged a bullet on this one.”

“All right, let’s keep up the
—
”

Before Henderson could finish
his
statement, Jennifer stepped on Amanda’s foot
.
Right on her
little
toe
.
Amanda couldn’t suppress a yelp.

The director’s sharp eyes turned to her
.
“Dr
.
…?
”

“
Rolph
.
Amanda,” she quickly added
,
as if being personable would stop a scolding.

“You wanted to add something?”

Amanda didn’t want to say another word
—
ever
—
in this blasted room, but Jennifer’s foot hovered over her own, just waiting to stomp down if she shirked.

Clearing her throat
, Amanda plunged in. “Sir, I think we are just experiencing a lull in the spread.”

“A ‘lull?’
”

The sarcastic texture of his question was not lost on Amanda
,
but the die was cast
.
She couldn’t back down without possibly needing a cast for her foot after Jennifer was done with it
.
“I believe these documented cases are just the warning shot over the bow.”

“That’s ridiculous,”
Devlin
spat
.
“Terrorists go for the big bang
.
They wouldn’t
test
-
drive
a bioweapon.”

That was just what she needed
.
Arrogant dismissal
.
If there was one thing that could get her over her pathological shyness, it was being dissed.

Her tone
sharp
ened
.
“Nevertheless, this dip in cases is just a delay from the incubation period.”

Henderson cut in before
Devlin
could restate his disbelief
.
“I’m assuming you have some scientific proof to back up your claim?”

She might have temporarily had the courage to go toe to toe with an arrogant, uninformed,
and
nonmedical CIA liaison, but Amanda wasn’t sure she had the nerve to face off against the whole room
,
let alone the director
.
B
ut again
,
Jennifer was not
allowing her to
back down
.
Her assistant brought up a map of Europe
on the
cramped room’s
sole plasma
screen
.
Each documented case of the plague was highlighted in red.

“We are aware of the zero patient, Dr.
Rolph
,” Henderson stated, sounding more annoyed than curious.

And
Devlin
wasn’t far behind
.
“Again, there are no Middle Eastern, Sub-Asian continental groups that have
—
”

She should keep
Devlin
around
.
H
e bugged her enough to prod her out of her self-imposed introversion
.
Glaring,
Amanda
challenged the liaison
.
“Doesn’t this pattern feel vaguely familiar to anyone?”

“The Asian epicenter is not uncommon
,
with diseases such as influenza and
—
” 
MacVetti
was on a
roll
, but Amanda cut
him off
.

“I mean, regarding the
plague
in particular.”

The
audience
again formed a
bee
hive mind
-set,
and
their
mumbling turned to do
wnright scoffing
.
But Jennifer
came
to the rescue again
.
Her assistant
brought up ano
ther map next to the current outbreak
.
They were nearly identical.

“What’s this?” Henderson asked.

“The plague,” Amanda answered plainly.

Before anyone could
show their
disgust, the second map sprang new cases, rapidly spreading across the whole of Italy.

“I…I don’t understand,” the director stated.

“This map is of the first plague
.
The Black Death.”

Luckily
,
Devlin
was the first to find his voice
.
“You aren’t implying…”

Amanda shook her head
.
“I’m not implying anything
.
I’m
saying
that someone is re
-
creating the original
b
ubonic
p
lague
.
Down to the epicenter
.
The spread over the Black Sea
.
The lag in cases.”

Everyone watched thousands
upon thousands of red dots spread over
the map.

“Everything,” Amanda said just before the room erupted into argument.

Neighbor argued with neighbor
.
Some shouted at Amanda, others just spouted off to no one in particular
.
This
was
why she didn’t want to say anything
—
but exactly the reason she had to.

The only one not engaged in various states of disbelief and denial was Dr. Henderson
.
He was on his feet, but calm, studying both maps
.
The director turned back to Amanda
.
“Why couldn’t this just be a natural resurgence of the disease?”

Luckily
,
she
had
prepared for this question
.
Amanda had raised it herself several times during her research
.
“Because the region has changed dramatically since the last outbreak
.
The migration routes of the nomads
have
been eliminated
—
”

“But
—
”
Devlin
tried to interrupt
. H
owever
,
Amanda wasn’t about to give up the floor until her point was made.

“And unless I missed something on
Nightline
, the Mongols aren’t attacking an Italian outpost in Sub-Asia and hurling their plague dead over the walls.” She turned back to Henderson and leveled her tone
.
“The last disease spread was highly dependent upon several circumstances
.
Circumstances unique to that era
.
Circumstances that could never be naturally re
-
created today.”

Amanda took a long
,
hard look at the second map that was now so covered in red dots that
no one
could distinguish individual specks anymore
.
The map was splashed with huge red splotches, as if the screen itself had contracted the disease that had killed a quarter of the known world
.
But Mother Nature
wasn’t
leveling the evolutionary playing field anymore
.

“Someone is seeding this disease
purposefully
.”

* * *

Lino
allowed the motorized walkway to carry him along to his gate
.
Others bustled past him, not content with the speed of the
conveyor
belt underfoot
.
The young man didn’t even look up when they bumped into him, mumbl
ing
their apologies
—
or not
,
given their level of civility
.
Why should he bother
?

Instead
,
Lino
kept his hand to the rail
.
When it felt completely dry, he would put it back into his coat pocket, dampen the surface of his palm with the contagion,
and
then place it on the cool metal again
.
It slid under his touch, unknowing or uncaring
that
it carried the single greatest threat to
human
kind on its smooth surface.

Pulling up his sleeve, he scanned the intricate scars carved into his arm
.
He was on schedule
.
He would easily make his flight.

His work here in Venice was almost done
.
Within the hour, hundreds of unsuspecting citizens from dozens of nations would be contaminated
.
Within
a
day
, they
,
and anyone they came in contact with
,
would be dead.

There was no more rewarding work than this
,
Lino
thought as he stepped off the walkway and headed to gate twenty-two.

CHAPTER 4

Second
U
ndisclosed Location

10:02
p
.
m
.
,
MST

Ronnie wiped sweat from her brow as she stared at the intricate alarm pad
.
She probably should have taken a taxi to the cold room
,
as it was a good three miles from the rooftop
.
B
ut with the streets still full of partiers, she decided to hoof it
.

At first
,
it had been at a nice walk
.
Her intent had been to soak up the sights
and
enjoy her victory
.
But with each passing step, she felt her feet move faster and faster until she covered the last mile at an all
-
out run
.
Had
Zach been after her
?
How close had he
“
virtually
”
come to catching her
?
She
had
to know.